We recently connected with Logan Woodle and have shared our conversation below.

Logan , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I work to introduce pewter into historically silver biased metalsmithing programs. Contemporary pewter is food safe, lead free, easy to work with, and accessibly priced. Allowing students to work with this material creates a way to achieve professional level work, regardless of socioeconomic background. However, historically, pewter was viewed as the “poor man’s silver” and was banned from classrooms across the western hemisphere. A narrative was created around pewter that supported its exclusion, based on limited understandings of the material. I currently work to demonstrate the functionality, beauty, and accessibility of pewter to encourage its inclusion into fine art and craft curriculum’s.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am the seventh generation to live on a family farm just outside of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Growing up I sat between two worlds, a farm and a quickly modernizing Myrtle Beach. These two, often opposing, contexts shaped my world view and after returning from graduate school I began to focus on ways to bring them together. Art has given me a way to do that. Through highly crafted but playfully composed objects I can invite viewers from a diversity of backgrounds into conversations they often avoid in their daily lives. I work to combine this with my work as an academic administrator developing workshops, outreach, and classrooms that do the same. At the heart of my work is an essential goal, focusing on finding intersections between blue- and white-collar communities that are encouraged to stay completely separate in today’s increasingly polarized world.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I truly believe that any recognition I have both inside and outside of my field is founded on my teaching practice. Teaching drives my creativity, and without it I truly believe I would flounder as an artist. My best work is born out of my teaching, as each student allows me to see making in a new way. Every student is unique and I learn from the way they navigate making, the context they bring to concept, and how they approach problem solving. My challenge is not to shape students to my ideal of a maker, but instead to help them discover their own goals and how to meet them. This leads to a classroom based around mutual curiosity, an openness to critique in both directions, and an honesty towards all party’s ability to improve. I am incredibly lucky to have been a part of many outstanding student’s journeys, and I am grateful that they have made space for me in their diverse communities as they have founded or expanded their own professional lives.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Learning the value of joy has been one of the most difficult, and essential, lessons of my career. I’ve spent far too much of my career focused on valuing work because of how hard it was. I think this is born of a need to prove myself in the context of a family history founded on stories about working the farm, and from academic tendencies to value rigor over outcome. Over the last decade I have been attempting to teach myself that joy is a virtuous part of creativity and work. Joy, and play, can energize us all to do more, exceed expectations, and come up novel approaches to problems.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: @loganwoodlemetalsmith
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/logan.woodle